On 4/23/11 6:41 PM, Riemer Thalen wrote:
OK, here is the technical side of the marketing issue.
Hi Riemer, apart from the fact that inside TDF there are already several
people with a decent marketing background, not only in the general
marketplace but specifically in the free software ecosystem, your email
shows little or no knowledge of the BROffice community.
Communities behave in a different - and sometimes weird - way, in
comparison with the commercial marketplace. Also marketing is very
different, and looking at technical manuals - something I would not suggest
before having at least some "hands on" experience - might be misleading,
when you have to deal with free software.
Your enthusiasm is fantastic, but - believe me, as I have been in marketing
of technology products for the last 30 years, and of free software for the
last eight - the community needs a helping hand and not a marketing lesson
(I am teaching marketing and communications at several Italian universities,
and in the past I have been a visiting professor in a couple of US
universities).
I refer also to your previous message about running a survey to ask about
features to people not using LibreOffice. Some past experiences show that
these surveys are of little or no help (and sometimes they might even be
misleading).
Apart from a very small group of people, software users do not have a clear
idea of the development process, and therefore they do not know what to ask.
The same applies to hardware users. Unfortunately, those who know which
features to ask are the so called "power users", i.e. those who already know
and use the product on a regular basis.
In any case, not even Apple - I remember your example - is using user
surveys to determine new features (I have been a consultant to Apple for
nine years, and I know several people they contract for testing prototypes).
Sometimes they use focus groups.
Sorry for the lengthy answer. Best regards, Italo
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